After decades as a priest in the Dominican Order of the Roman Catholic Church, Fox ran afoul of then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger -- now Pope Benedict XVI -- who was in charge of the Vatican office from which the Inquisition sprang.

Ratzinger, reacting to Fox's mystical "creation spirituality" and his stances on such things as homosexuality and women clergy, silenced the renegade priest for a year. Eventually, Fox was dispelled from his order. He went on to join the Episcopal Church, and found the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality.

So nobody should be surprised if Fox's message in two talks on Sept. 11 in Boulder doesn't hew to the expected. He'll speak at a morning service at First United Methodist Church, then give a public address at 7 p.m. at the church.

"I'm calling it 'Hope is a Verb with Its Sleeves Rolled Up,'" Fox says by phone from his home in Oakland, Calif. "We have a lot of work to that has been exposed (by Sept. 11 and the ensuing years), work of consciousness and values as a country."

Despite the horror and loss of life on Sept. 11, 2001, Fox believes that the attacks "broke open something in our consciousness. It exposed our vulnerability" -- and that's not a bad thing, he says.

Unfortunately, he says, the United States' "lashed out in a reptilian fashion and started two wars, only one of which made any sense."

More than 5,000 Americans have lost their lives in the ongoing wars in Afghanistan -- started in 2001 -- and Iraq, launched in 2003. But, Fox says, Americans seldom think about the tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans who have died, perhaps most of whom were non-combatants. In addition, he believes Americans have turned a blind eye to the soldiers who have returned sick, missing limbs or having "paid a tremendous psychological price" for their service.

"I met a fellow whose twin brother served in Iraq for three years as a medic," Fox says. "He saw a lot of awful stuff and he is still recovering. He came back extremely angry, his personality totally changed."

One hard lesson Americans have (or have not) learned is that reacting in vengeance and anger do not necessarily bring about peace or a sense of "closure." "Waving the flag eternally" and pretending that the United States can respond to every provocation around the globe with its military might are symptoms of a fading empire, Fox says.

"We can learn lessons from this. The whole issue of being an empire, even a reluctant one, as we have been since World War I, must be talked about," he says. "We don't need empires any more as a species. They are a luxury. Those days are over. We should talk about the end of empire. We can do it gracefully, or stupidly. Stupidly means we bankrupt ourselves."

Along with the costs in blood and treasure incurred by the military responses to Sept. 11, the nation has seen a disturbing enmeshment of "violence and sentimentality" about soldiers and war, Fox says. Even as the economy has foundered, many of the most ardent budget-cutters still insist on maintaining or growing a military budget that is nearly twice that of the rest of the world's combined.

"Part of it is that the military-industrial complex is everywhere, in every congressperson's district, is being supported by it. When the word goes out about cutting defense spending, everyone just kind of freezes. Even Republicans see the government as an employer" when it comes to defense spending, Fox says.

He's also disturbed by what he calls "crackpot Christianity" and right-wing Catholicism.

But for all that, Fox believes that "breakdown is the opening to breakthrough, and with negativity comes creativity."

In the future, he hopes Americans will open themselves to learning about other religious traditions rather than thoughtlessly demonizing them. Rather than reacting in fury, which ultimately harms us in myriad ways, Fox says, there is still an opportunity to learn from the trauma of ten years ago.

Sept. 11 "unleashed so much anger; what do we do? We need to deal with our moral outrage in a new, healthy way," he says. "We need to allow ourselves healthy debate."

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